[pct-l] Trail Conditions Hwy 74 to Saddle Junction Apr 15-17

[Eric Martinot]

Sunday morning April 15, after the big April 13-14 storm passed, I  
started north from Hwy 74 (Mile 152) to see if I could get through to  
Saddle Junction or even all the way through Fuller.  (Got to Hwy 74  
nobo April 12, just in time to sit out the storm.)  I did get to  
Saddle Junction, but it took three days in the snow.

First, a big "thank you" to the unknown person who walked a day ahead  
of me, starting during the tail end of the storm on Saturday April 14  
it seemed.  I was able to follow your snowprints the whole way and  
that made the section much less stressful (and less postholing,  
although you seemed to have used some type of small-print snowshoe so  
I could still break through your prints).  You had an excellent  
ability to stay right on top of the trail (with a few snafus).  At  
lower elevations your snowprints were already melting into bare  
ground, revealing the trail underneath.

The first part of the trail, from Mile 152 to 164 just past Eagle  
Spring trail junction, was easy to follow although mostly walking on  
snow, just some inches deep.  It's probably all melted by now.  Lots  
of water flowing across the trail in the first 8 miles, but then  
nothing from snow melt after that.  Somewhere around Mile 164 (before  
Peak 7123) was the first foray into 12-18" of snow in forest where the  
trail wasn't visible, and both the unknown person and I went astray a  
little, but not serious, and tracking down to Fobes Saddle still easy,  
still mostly walking on snow.

The interesting part began on the approach to Spittler Peak and  
especially the east side traverse of Spitler.  There, in the forest,  
the snow was deep enough to completely obliterate the trail, and the  
first real post-holing began, sometimes up to my knees.  Still, my  
unknown leader took a good line and the trail re-appeared and was  
faithfully continued on the north side.  The east slope of Spittler is  
steep here, with some long run-outs, but the snow was soft and deep  
and so I didn't feel the need to don traction (Kahtoola KTS) or take  
ice-axe in hand.

Then came the big three -- Apache, Antsell, and South Peak.  Lots of  
traversing on the eastern and northern slopes of these, and the  
terrain is steep!  Glad I did Apache and Antsell in the afternoon when  
the snow was very soft.  (And South Peak's south and east-facing  
traverses in the morning sun were OK too.) Mostly on the traverses  
there was 12-24 inches of snow on the trail, or even deeper on the  
inside part, but you could see the outer edge of the trail, and often  
even walk with left foot on snow and right foot on the bare ground  
edge, so there was little danger of slipping off the trail.  However,  
there were several sections where that was not true, the snow   
completely covered the trail and sometimes even obliterated the trail,  
and some of these had steep snow-slope run-offs or even rock cliffs at  
the edge of the trail (although a majority of down-side terrain was  
bushes or logs or rocks that would catch one).  In these exposed  
sections, I was really glad to have my ice-axe as self-belay anchor  
(with wrist leash), and would not have felt comfortable without it.  I  
was able to plunge the axe into the uphill snow all the way up to the  
pick almost always -- there was no ice underneath except north of  
South Peak and the snow was still consistently deep on the uphill side  
of the trail.  The anchors felt very secure.  I also donned KTS  
traction on these exposed sections, but didn't really need it, the  
snow was so soft, and the traction didn't really seem to add anything  
over boots -- the traction even caused existing snowprints to cave  
outwards which the boots never did (kick-steping KTS into existing  
prints helped reduce cave-outs).

The sections where there seemed dangerous exposures and snow  
completely covering the trail at a steep angle (especially with large  
rocks on the uphill side), where I took ice-axe in hand, were:  (1) a  
stretch of about 150-200 yards on the north-east side of Apache; (2)  
the switchbacks north of Apache; (3) parts of the Anstell traverse and  
and the switchbacks north of Antsell; and (4) the first north-south  
switchback going up South Peak, which is back in the forest.  (By the  
way, the top of Apache and the crest line north of Apache were bare of  
snow, one could easily go up and over Apache, but that wouldn't help  
with the remaining bits.)  I'm sure others braver or less risk-averse  
could navigate without ice-axe or traction and feel OK about it, but I  
wouldn't.  I'm quite afraid of steep snow exposure.  (Those with more  
snow experience might claim the snow was deep and soft enough that  
simply dumping one's body down into it could probably arrest some  
slides, but I never tried that theory.)

The second night I camped at CS0172, 7200 ft, a really nice spot on  
the saddle just before South Peak, overlooking Palm Springs.  Snow  
pretty much gone from this spot.

After South Peak, the crestline route up to the big campsite at  
CS0175, done in the morning but not too early, was OK but slow, lots  
of postholing but no real danger, the outside of the trail was visible  
throughout, although deep snow covered the inside of the trail.  Took  
me 4 hours to go those 3 miles, don't understand that.  After CS0175 I  
though the worst was over, but I was wrong!  (And I really needed the  
water of Tahquitz Creek, just a few miles away.)  After CS0175, the  
snow got really deep, now 8000 ft. elevation, continuous snow cover,  
continuous postholing, no trail whatsoever visible any more.  Now the  
GPS with Half-Mile's waypoints was really helpful.  It took me 8 hours  
of continuous walking from CS0172 to reach Little Tahquitz Valley, a  
total of just about 5.5 miles for the day.

(By the way, there was a loud explosive rock fall on the slopes above  
the trail just south of CS0175, just half-hour after I passed by,  
which seems like it must have crossed the trail on the way down, not  
sure if it resulted in any trail damage.  Also, somewhere between Mile  
169 and 175, I forget exactly, there was a combination huge rock and  
tree that both covered the trail in the same spot, hard to climb over  
especially with snow on both sides, but that means probably impassable  
for stock until cleared.)

(Regarding water, Tahquitz Creek late afternoon was flowing, but just  
a small flow, and most of the creek is covered over by deep snow.  At  
the point WR0177, there were steep 15-foot snowbanks that made access  
difficult to a few places where water was visible, so I went  
downstream about 0.1 mile and there is a much easier access.   And  
water access is easy in the small meadow of Little Tahquitz Valley,  
halfway downstream between WR0177 and Tahquitz Meadow.  There is also  
a bare ground spot at the lower end of that small meadow -- I didn't  
see any flowing water or bare ground in Tahquitz Meadow itself,  
although I didn't really look.  Also, in the first days, I discovered  
that packing a Nalgene bottle full of snow and hanging from the  
outside of the pack, and repacking a few times during the day, would  
yield at least 1/2 liter by the afternoon, so I didn't have to drop  
down to any of the water sources.)

At speeds of 1/2 mile per hour in deep snow at 8000 fit, I decided not  
to keep going over Fuller, and came down Devil's Slide.  Lots of  
snowprints around Devil's Slide, but mine and my unknown leader's  
prints were the only ones on the PCT south of Mile 177.  Conditions  
might be very different in days or weeks as the snow melts (and April  
17 it was a hot 70 degrees at 9am at 7200 ft!).  But given the  
disparity between snow depth under forest cover and on north and east  
facing slopes, compared to the already bare cover on unforested and  
south slopes, it seems to my uneducated view that the the snow is  
going to hang around for awhile!   I'm continuing north from I-10  
(more snow it seems!), and will have to come back for Fuller later.

Thanks also to JJ for the help.